Recalling pro hockey’s arrival in Sydney

In my last column I mentioned significant events that were happening in Sydney during the 1980s, the building of Centre 200 and how it got there.

Manning MacDonald

The next problem we had to deal with was marketing a 5,000-seat facility so it would not become a financial liability for the taxpayers of Sydney.

Centre 200 carried a price tag of over $15 million (a debt that is now retired) and was considered to be a bargain at that time. It was completed with little or no cost overruns largely due to a great co-operative effort between the various unions, contractors and our project manager, Charles Fowler.

One of the immediate benefits following the opening of Centre 200 was the large number of events we were able to attract including concerts, trade shows and international sporting events.

Still, even though it was being used for major outside events we still needed a major tenant to make the building financially viable. The answer was obvious — an American Hockey League (AHL) franchise.

The AHL had a spotty existence in Nova Scotia over the years because Halifax seemed to be the only city that could support a team. That is, until Centre 200 opened. The American Hockey League was in expansion mode during the 1980s so a committee was formed at city hall to go looking for a franchise.

As chair of the Centre 200 commission, I contacted the Winnipeg Jets organization as we had heard they were looking to come to the Maritimes. We held discussions with Jets GM John Ferguson and their legal counsel Brian Burke, and after some weeks of negotiations a tentative deal was reached.

Or at least I thought it was until we found out they used our numbers to leverage a deal with Moncton. I learned very quickly that we were indeed dealing in the big leagues and we learned a valuable lesson that would prepare us for our next attempt to obtain a franchise.

Then we learned the Nova Scotia Oilers were leaving Halifax and were looking for a new home in the Maritimes. After much discussion with Edmonton Oilers GM Glen Sather, an agreement was reached that gave birth to the Cape Breton Oilers.

This deal was very different than the Winnipeg experience in that the City of Sydney and Centre 200 bought half the franchise and became partners with Edmonton in the operation of their farm team in Sydney.

The Cape Breton Oilers launched in 1988 and became an instant success in Centre 200. Professional hockey had arrived in Sydney and would fill the seats, culminating with a Calder Cup win in 1993, the same week I was elected to the Nova Scotia Legislature as the MLA for Cape Breton South.

I certainly had mixed feelings about entering provincial politics, but I knew that after close to 15 years as mayor it was time to move on. The winds of change were in the air and I knew that regional government was inevitable for Cape Breton County.

The Edmonton Oilers also had similar thoughts about moving on in 1995 and approached the mayor and city council of the day about selling the city’s 50 per cent share of the Oilers to Edmonton so they could negotiate a franchise elsewhere.

Sather negotiated a deal that saw the Cape Breton Oilers move to Ontario and became the Hamilton Bulldogs. I was not happy with that move and I made my feelings known to anyone who would listen. I felt the City of Sydney and Centre 200 Commission should have offered to purchase Edmonton’s share of the team and negotiate with other NHL teams to become partners with the Municipality.

It was well known at the time that both Toronto and Montreal were looking east for their farm teams. Sather won out and the AHL was lost to Cape Breton forever, with Montreal and Toronto farm teams moving elsewhere in the region. The loss of the AHL to Cape Breton caused great concern to the Centre 200 Commission as they were now without a major tenant.

But an often-used comment is that when one door closes another one opens and it would certainly apply here. In my next column I will provide some details on how the present major hockey tenant at Centre 200 — the major junior Screaming Eagles — ended up in Cape Breton.

This team has now been here for close to 20 years, providing entertainment, jobs and needed financial stability for Centre 200. I hope that it will not be necessary for anyone to write about this team leaving in the future.

Manning MacDonald was a former Mayor Of Sydney and an MLA and cabinet minister in the provincial Liberal governments of Dr. John Savage and Russell MacLellan. He lives in Sydney.